Pages

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Preschool Story Time - Spoon

Well this was one of those 'what was I thinking?' moments. There are SO many books you can use for the theme of cooking or eating, I thought I would narrow it down. I love ALL of Amy Rosenthal's books, especially Chopsticks, but cuts had to be made. Other books considered were Spork by Kyo MacLear, and Stone Soup in any format. The kids looked puzzled when I introduced this theme, but the moms looked at me as if to say "OK, let me see you pull THIS off." It was just good fun before we got into all of the seasonal and holiday themes which take over from September-January.

The Plan:

Spoon by Amy K Rosenthal

This super cute book is one of several about cooking utensils. Spoon is lamenting that his friends are all so super cool and there is nothing special about him. He doesn't realize that his friends all see the specialness in Spoon and appreciate him for his abilities. Many of the kids have read this one, many more of the mom's wanted to see more by Ms. Rosenthal. Of course, I had everything on display!

Too Many Cooks by Margaret McNamara

Well, I was expecting everyone to shout RATATOUILLE!! But no one did! One of my favorite Pixar movies was just not known by the preschoolers. But the text is rather short and the kids did get to count the rats so it made up for it. The down side of this book is many of the cooking terms no one knew, and some were difficult to pronounce. I opted not to read it in my later, quieter group.

Before HALFTIME (see my Preschool Story Time Tab for the additional parts of story time I do weekly) We did this Finger Play from The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Chants and Finger Plays (Silberg and Schiller):

Stir it round and round the pot (make one arm holding a pot and one arm stirring)

The bubbles plip (make pop with left hand)

The bubbles plop (make pop with right hand)

It's ready to eat all bubbling hot (rub your tummy)

Wake up baby, wake up soon (put hands up to mouth like calling for the baby)

We'll eat the porridge with a spoon (pretend to eat).

I also tried this rhyme to see if any parents or children knew it:

Peas Porridge Hot

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold,

Peas porridge in the pot, nine days old.

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

Then we had our HALFTIME dance.

As a cool down to our dance, we did our flannel board which was brought to me by Miss Kristie's little preschooler and my special story timer, Daisy. Miss Kristie let me borrow her flannels for Hey Diddle Diddle which she featured in a recent Flannel Friday (ClickHERE to see more about this Flannel Story)

We review Mother Goose rhymes often in story time. I try to do them once a month, but find many of them have been fitting in with my themes, so we have been doing them quite regularly! Children like repetition and feel successful when they can follow along. Also, this helps with early literacy because we slow the rhymes down so they can hear sentences broken down into smaller pieces, they hear rhythms, and learn rhyme.

"If you want to hear a story wiggle your ears....if you wanna hear a story wiggle your ears....!" Back to the books!

Little Pea by Amy K Rosenthal

An audible GASP from a MOM on this one! I guess it is a family favorite! I love it too. Little Pea loves her little pea life, except what she is forced to eat for dinner every night: CANDY! In a quaint story that every child can relate to, Little Pea must clean her plate of candy before she can have dessert - spinach is her favorite!

A Soup Opera by Jim Gill

A man in a restaurant is pained because he cannot eat his soup! A Waiter, a Chef, a Policeman, the Mayor and the President all come to his aid in this Operetta. This was a strange one! I find this book hysterically funny, but it felt like the preschoolers didn't get it. Jim Gill does a great job of narrating/performing this book, so I put many copies on display and encouraged the kids to check them out. Even though the kids sat quietly through it (while I acted ridiculous through it!), ALL of the books were checked out. Many of the moms hopped up to grab it, so I guess it went over better than I thought!

My Craft was based on Miss Kristie's Hey Diddle Diddle Flannels (pardon the pins!). The kids adored this craft! YAY! I even got feedback from mom's saying their child played with their 'dish ran away with the spoon puppets'!! I love it when that happens!

So in the end, this theme went over well. Nothing compares to a rip-roaring animal theme, but its always fun to do a theme 'out of the box'...or in this case, out of the utensil drawer!